


The One Where Peter is Tony's Weakness

by JinxQuickfoot



Series: Weaknesses [30]
Category: Iron Man (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe, Spider-Man (Tom Holland Movies), The Avengers (Marvel Movies), The Avengers (Marvel) - All Media Types
Genre: Body Horror, Captives, Hostage Situations, Hurt Peter Parker, Irondad, Kidnapped Peter Parker, Kidnapped Tony Stark, Kidnapping, Peter Parker Whump, Post-Civil War (Marvel), Pre-Avengers: Infinity War Part 1 (Movie), Protective Tony Stark, Tony Stark Acting as Peter Parker's Parental Figure, Tony Stark Has A Heart, Torture, spiderson
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-04-19
Updated: 2020-04-19
Packaged: 2021-03-02 01:00:38
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,785
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23726479
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/JinxQuickfoot/pseuds/JinxQuickfoot
Summary: “I see you are confused. In a moment, I will allow you to look closer. But first, you must understand the position you are in in full.” Banich rolled out an ancient TV screen, and when he turned it on, Tony felt like he’d been kicked in the stomach.It was Peter.----------------------------------------------------------------------------A Sokovian refugee needs Tony's help in 'fixing' his granddaughter, and Peter gets pulled into the middle of it.
Relationships: Peter Parker & Tony Stark
Series: Weaknesses [30]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1672462
Comments: 17
Kudos: 148
Collections: Weaknesses





	The One Where Peter is Tony's Weakness

**Author's Note:**

> Day 30 of the "Weaknesses" writing challenge
> 
> WE MADE IT. Thank you so much to everyone who has commented, left kudos, and shown support through this challenge - it hasn't been an easy one. You guys are the reason we got through it. Thank you and I love you 3000 x 
> 
> There are some body horror elements in this one and strong language - please be warned.
> 
> [Come say hi on Tumblr - I take requests!](https://www.tumblr.com/blog/jinxquickfoot)

_Afganistan._

It was Tony’s first thought when he finally jerked back to consciousness and found his wrists and ankles firmly strapped to a chair, a wad of fabric in his mouth and a black hood over his head. _I’m back. I never left. They’re going to…_

“Mr Stark. Are you awake?”

Tony froze. English, with an Eastern European - not Urdu. And the floor under his feet was concrete, not sand or rough cave rock. There was no electromagnet sewn into his chest, and other than a throbbing headache, he didn’t seem to be hurt.

There was a sudden pinch on his arm, and Tony flinched. “Good. If you’re awake, we can get started. No need to wait.”

And he hadn’t gotten here after an explosion. No weapons demonstration. No soldiers. He had been flying downtown after he’d gotten the call…

_Mr Stark? I think I might be in over my head here. You know, just a little. Ok. Maybe a lot._

The hood was ripped off Tony’s head and he blinked rapidly as his eyes adjusted to the bright lights filling the room. He fought the fog in his head, trying to remember, but his memories cut out as he had rounded the corner and seen the kid lying unconscious in an alley.

There was movement, and a man came around in front of the chair. Tony’s eyes had started to adjust, and he frowned up at the man looking down at him. This couldn’t be his captor. The man was well into his sixties, mostly bald with small half-moon glasses. Another captive? They appeared to be in some kind of lab - were they going to ask Tony to build a new weapon?

Was the man in front of him a new Yinsen?

He tried to use his tongue to push out the gag, but the older man shushed him, pushing the fabric so far in that it clogged Tony’s throat, making him choke. “Later,” the older man assured him. “But you are well known for how much you like the sound of your own voice, Mr Stark. And you need to listen first.”

Tony wrenched against the restraints, but they didn’t budge. “Those will come off too,” the other man continued. “If you listen first. Agreed?”

Hesitantly, Tony nodded. 

“Good. The sooner we are done, the sooner you and the kid can go home. Ok?”

_Peter._

Tony tried to yell something, only to be met with a stern look, as though he was a naughty schoolboy being admonished by the schoolmaster.

“If you try to interrupt again,” the older man said, still calm. “We can resume this in a few hours. Ok?”

It took every ounce of control for Tony to not retort. He nodded instead.

“Excellent. I don’t want to wait any longer. We’ve waited so long.”

Tony let his eyes roam the room, taking it in. It wasn’t nearly up to the standards of one of his workshops, but it was better than the set-up the Ten Rings had provided him. Every surface was sterilised and crowded around a central table like a stage. There was something on the table covered in a white sheet, a multitude of tubes and wires connected to various machines that were whirring and beeping. Every piece of equipment looked at least ten years out of date. Glancing down at himself, he saw he was wearing a pristine set of white clothes. He didn’t let himself dwell too long on how he had been dressed that way.

The older man approached the central table. “My name is Hansen Banich. We’ve met, actually, not that I’d except a man such as yourself to remember me. I used to work in getting medical technology to those in need. We approached Stark Industries some time ago to ask for aid. We were turned down.”

Tony had no memory of that, although ‘some time ago’ suggested that Obidiah would still have been helping run the company then.

“That was when we still lived in Sokovia.”

Tony closed his eyes, his headache intensifying _. Sokovia. It was always Sokovia._

“After your technology destroyed our home, my daughter and I travelled all the way to the States to first make a better life for ourselves. Once we had found our feet, we planned on helping others. Creating a home for other Sokovian refugees. But we struggled. She was very sick, you see. I tried everything to stop the disease, but it overtook her eventually.”

Tony continued to run his eyes around the room, looking for anything that might make for a weapon, as Banich kept talking. “But I wasn’t on my own. She left me a beautiful grandchild. She was born in America so we gave her an American name. One that meant hope.”

Banich began to pull back the sheet, and Tony’s eyes fixated on the central table. Lying there, perfectly still except for the rising and falling of her chest, was a young woman. Tony placed her in her early twenties, but the way her hair was braided was reminiscent of a child.

“Mr Stark, this is my life. This is Nadia.”

Tony couldn’t stop staring at the copious amount of tubes and running in and out of the young woman. If it weren’t for the gentle rise and fall of her chest, he couldn’t imagine that anyone in that state was alive.

“I see you are confused.” _That’s putting it mildly._ “In a moment, I will allow you to look closer. But first, you must understand the position you are in in full.”

Banich rolled out an ancient TV screen, and when he turned it on, Tony felt like he’d been kicked in the stomach.

It was Peter.

The kid was alive but bloody, tied down and gagged like Tony was, the only difference being an IV running into his arm. Tony let out a muffled yell, pulling at the restraints again.

“A necessary component,” Banich went on, almost apologetic. “But I am aware of your time in Afghanistan. I do not think that I can outsmart you. But please know, Mr Stark, that I have had a very long time to prepare, and I have thought of every outcome. Mr Parker is being kept in a different facility to this one, far from where your teammates will think to look, or yourself, if you escape. Please look at me, Mr Stark.”

Tony forced himself to look away from the television screen, and saw a pill held gently between Banich’s teeth before the man tucked it away into the corner of his mouth. “Cyanide,” he said simply. “If you attack me, or try to make me tell you where the boy is, I will use it. And he will starve to death before you find him.”

Tony gripped the arms of the chair, temper rising. Who was this man to tell him he wouldn’t find his kid? Tony had trackers, he had-

“All trackers have been removed from Mr Parker’s person,” Banich continued as though he had read Tony’s mind. “If you do not do what I ask for, I will hurt him. If you mistreat Nadia in any way, I’ll hurt him. If you try to escape or harm me, I will die and take his location with me.” 

He said all of this as though he were reading a grocery list. “I’m going to untie you now. But I’d like some assurance you will not try to hurt me or Nadia when I do.”

Tony looked from Banich, to the image of Peter, bleeding on the screen, then back to Banich. He nodded. 

“I’m very grateful that you understood so quickly, Mr Stark.” Banich crossed the room and undid the restraint on Tony’s right arm. Tony was tempted to grab the man right there and then, but he stopped at the sight of the cyanide pill between the man’s teeth. _Shit._ He was going to have to really put his brain in gear to figure out how to get him and Peter out of this.

_Data data data. I cannot make bricks without clay._ He could at least get a better sense of the lab he was in first. Banich didn’t seem in any hurry to kill him or Peter, so he had time.

The moment his hand was free, Tony tugged the gag out of his mouth, coughing and spluttering as Banich undid the rest of the restraints. “I understand that you will be in a hurry to escape,” Banich continued in that same calm voice. “I would be too. But perhaps after you see what I am offering you, the project I want you to work on, Mr Stark, you might change your mind.”

“I doubt it,” Tony shot back, his voice hoarse. “Only one who can do that is Pepper, and only on every other Tuesday.”

“Perhaps I should bring her here to convince you.” Tony started forward at that, but Banich took a large step away. “I do not believe it will come to that. I know you are not a heartless man, Mr Stark. I know you will not let one so young suffer. Come. Let me show you.”

Cautiously, Tony made his way over to the central table, getting his first glimpse of the sleeping girl. On the surface, she looked like any other coma patient. 

The Banich pulled the sheet all the way down, and Tony sprang away from the table, grabbed the nearest dish, and threw up.

“Please try not to do that,” Banich said, as if he were telling Tony to please remove his shoes. “It’s not sanitary. The lab must be kept sanitary at all times.”

“Fuck.” Tony leaned over the dish, willing himself not to throw up again.

“Please return to the table, Mr Stark.” 

Tony grit his teeth. _Come on, Stark. You can do it. You used to_ _have a fucking magnet in a fucking hole in your chest where your sternum should be. You can do this._

Tony turned back to the girl - or, what was maybe about a third of a girl. The remains of her flesh and muscle were interspersed with various wires and metals and tubes. Many of the tubes were see-through, and he fought another wave of nausea as he watched the girl’s blood being manually pumped around her body. Her chest was almost entirely exposed, organs that were half organic, half-machine beating in time to the exposed heart.

“Do you understand, Mr Stark?”

Not trusting himself to speak, Tony shook his head.

“I’ve tried so hard.” Banich brushed a stray strand of hair behind his granddaughter’s ear. “I’ve kept her alive, replacing her piece by piece as the disease that took her mother started to take her. But I can’t get her to work.”

“To work?” Tony managed. “She’s…she’s alive?”

“Very much so,” Banich nodded. “But asleep. Always asleep. I can’t get her to wake up.” His eyes met Tony’s, filled with sadness and longing. “You need to help me wake her up, Mr Stark.”

“I…can’t.” For the first time, something like anger crossed Banich’s expression. Tony caught it and, darting his eyes to Peter, hurried on. “Not that I won’t. Although, whether I will…” He shook his head. “That doesn’t matter. Because I can’t do this. No one could do this.” _Or should,_ he thought, but, for Peter’s sake, he kept that to himself.

“I’m sorry,” he went on. “I really am. For your loss. For Stark Industries turning you down. But SI has a new CEO with a whole new way of thinking who would love to help get technology to those who need it. We’ve already deployed extensive relief in Sokovia.”

“Relief for a slaughter you caused.”

“I am sorry,” Tony said again, meaning it. “For Ultron. For all of it. But I’m trying to fix it.”

“The Accords,” Banich mused. “Yes. A small step on your road to redemption. But it is not enough.”

“I know, long way to go,” Tony continued. “Making the world safer - making it better…that’s not something I can from in here. And it’s certainly not something _he_ can do from that chair.” Tony nodded to Peter. “He’s a brave kid. One of the good ones, I promise you. So why don’t you let him go and we can talk more about…” He fumbled. _Come on, Stark. Seriously?_

“Nadia,” Banich breathed.

“Nadia. Of course. On the tip of my tongue. You love her, yeah? Well, the kid's got people who love him too, just as much. So why don’t you let him run home to his surprisingly attractive aunt, and then we can talk, ok?”

“We are talking.”

“Look.” Tony was trying as hard as he could to not glance at Peter’s image on the screen, to not betray how much the kid’s unconscious form was making his heart pound. “He shouldn’t be part of this, ok? He’s just an intern who helps in the lab sometimes. It’s mostly a PR stunt - doing some media control after the Accords fiasco.”

“Just an intern.” Banich raised one white eyebrow. “An intern with an advanced healing factor who can lift ten times his weight?”

It was as if Tony’s blood had turned to ice. “He’s not-”

“Please - we are beyond lies. I have prepared for this moment for a long time, Mr Stark. I have left no loopholes for you to exploit. I know Peter Parker is Spider-Man, and I have adjusted his accommodations accordingly.”

“If we’re beyond lies - you can call it a prison.”

“And I know he more to you than an intern. I recognise the sentiment.” Banich stroked his granddaughter’s forehead. “I know you will protect him at all costs.”

“I’m not the only one. I know the Avengers may be a little scattered around the globe right now, but there’s still some in my corner who are going to notice I’m not around to make them pretty toys anymore. So here’s my deal for you, and it’s a pretty generous one. Let me and Peter go, now, and I’ll convince them to go easy on you once they find us - which they will.”

“You had people looking for you in Afghanistan too,” Banich pointed out. “How long did it take them to locate you? And even then, you had to make it easier for them, did you not? And I don’t believe Mr Parker will last two months without food.”

The threat cracked something in Tony and he lunged towards Banich with a snarl, only to halt at the cyanide pill that emerged between Banich’s teeth. “If I die, he dies,”

“I’d find him.”

“Are you willing to gamble his life on that? I know I do not look like much. But you’re here. Spider-Man is here. Does not that speak to the level of thought of preparation I have put into this?”

Tony gritted his teeth, but backed away. "You can't help your granddaughter if you're dead. She'll die."

It was the wrong thing to say. “I thought you would understand,” Banich murmured. “She'll die anyway. She's dying now. You’re the answer.”

"No one could do what you’re asking. Not even me.”

“You’re Tony Stark.” Banich seemed to be talking to himself now, caressing his granddaughter’s face. “You’re Iron Man.” Banich raised his head, and Tony saw what he was looking at. The place where the arc reactor used to be.  


Tony automatically drew his hands to his chest. “That was different.”

“You were damaged. They put technology in you to help you live.”

“That was some shrapnel in my chest, not…” He gestured helplessly to the table again.

“You can fix her.” Banich gripped his granddaughter’s hand, then looked at Tony.

Tony saw it then. The madness. The look of a man unhinged.

“You will fix her.”

Banich was standing, going for the door. Tony hurried to stop him, only to see the cyanide pill clasped in Banich’s back teeth. “Ok,” Tony relented, backing up with his hands in the air. “Let’s talk this through, ok? I’m listening.”

But Banich was still backing towards the door. “Enough talking. You do not understand. You do not listen.”

“I _am_ listening to you, goddamnit. Me, Tony Stark, here, listening to you. That’s what you wanted, yeah?”

Banich’s hand was on the doorknob. _Shit, what did I do?_

“Let’s be reasonable. I’m happy to be reasonable, ok? It’s not a no, I just need more - Banich!”

But Banich was already slipping out the door. Tony threw himself at it as the key turned in the lock, slamming his hands against it. “Don’t hurt him! Banich! Don’t you touch him!”

There was no response, only the sound of retreating footsteps.

**Author's Note:**

> NOTE: This fic/series is currently on hiatus while I work on the [Whumptoberverse](https://archiveofourown.org/works/26438419). You can check out my other Peter & Tony/Irondad fics here:
> 
> ['Til the Fight is Done](https://archiveofourown.org/works/26438419)   
>  [Man in a Can](https://archiveofourown.org/works/26494669/chapters/64568395)   
>  [You're Always Spider-man](https://archiveofourown.org/works/26791210/chapters/65356297)   
>  [The One Where Peter is Bucky's Weakness](https://archiveofourown.org/works/23544727/chapters/56475709)
> 
> So hey, I have this film and screenwriting podcast? It's called "Kill the Cat" and once a month my co-host and I and break down one of our favourite movies or tv shows and look at why they work, including Harry Potter, The Princess Bride, Brooklyn Nine-Nine and, of course, the MCU.
> 
> You can check it out on [YouTube](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Ypaen3yM5Q&t=1s&ab_channel=KilltheCatPodcast), [Spotify](https://open.spotify.com/show/5hCprc9UCBZP4srFrBXKT1?si=ZOqdhMlVQvqV2fG5PxuvOA), or anywhere you listen to podcasts. 
> 
> And hey. You're doing great.


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